(COLLEGE STATION, TX) — Researchers at the Texas A&M Health Science Center (TAMHSC) College of Medicine have proposed a distinct type of treatment that capitalizes on the self-repair processes occurring in the brain after a stroke.

Stroke is the leading cause of long-term disability and third leading cause of death in the United States. The most common type of stroke, ischemic stroke, occurs when a blood clot blocks an artery, causing nerve cells to die rapidly.

“Most research thus far has focused on acute stroke treatment and neuroprotection only,” said Gregory Bix, M.D., Ph.D., assistant professor at the TAMHSC-College of Medicine and study senior author. “However, there is a clear need for ischemic stroke therapy that is both neuroprotective and promotes brain repair. So we hypothesized that using the self-repair mechanisms within the brain may also yield therapeutic strategies.”

Ultimately, the researchers learned an extracellular matrix fragment called perlecan domain V had these therapeutic qualities. Perlecan domain V is part of a cell’s connective tissue, like the glue that holds a cell together.

These results suggest perlecan domain V represents a promising approach for stroke treatment, said Dr. Bix, who has studied the inner workings of the human brain during and after a stroke since 2007.

Other contributors to the Journal of Clinical Investigation paper from the TAMHSC-College of Medicine were Boyeon Lee, Douglas Clark, Abraham Al Ahmad, Michael Kahle, Christi Parham, Lisa Auckland and Courtney Shaw. Mehmet Fidanboylu and Sarah A. Thomas from King’s College London, Anthony Wayne Orr from the Louisiana State University Health Science Center in Shreveport, Omolara Ogunshola from the University of Zurich in Switzerland, and Andrzej Fertala from Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia also contributed.

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